1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a three-dimensional structure manufacturing apparatus, a manufacturing method of a three-dimensional structure, and a three-dimensional structure.
2. Related Art
A three-dimensional structure manufacturing apparatus which forms a three-dimensional object by solidifying powders with a binding solution has been known (for example, see JP-A-2001-150556). With this manufacturing apparatus, a three-dimensional object is formed by repeating the following operations. First, the powders are spread thin by a blade to form a powder layer, and the binding solution is discharged to a desired portion of the powder layer, and accordingly the powders are bound to each other. As a result, among the powder layer, the part having the binding solution discharged thereto is only bound, and a thin plate-shaped member (hereinafter, referred to as a “unit layer”) is formed. After that, a powder layer is further formed to be thin on the above powder layer and the binding solution is discharged to the desired part. As a result, a new unit layer is also formed on a part of the newly formed powder layer, having the binding solution discharged thereto. At that time, since the discharged binding solution permeates the powder layer and reaches the previously formed unit layer, the newly formed unit layer is also bound with the previously formed unit layer previously formed. Such operations are repeated to laminate the thin plate-shaped unit layers one by one, and accordingly, a three-dimensional object can be formed.
By using such three-dimensional formation technology (three-dimensional structure manufacturing apparatus), it is possible to bind the powders to immediately form the structure, as long as three-dimensional shape data of an object to be formed is provided, and since it is not necessary to manufacture a mold prior to the formation, it is possible to form a three-dimensional object in a short period of time at a low cost. In addition, since the structure is formed by laminating the thin plate-shaped unit layers one by one, it is even possible to form a complicated object having an internal structure, for example, an integrated structure, without dividing the structure into a plurality of components.
However, in the three-dimensional structure manufacturing apparatus of the related art, production efficiency of the three-dimensional structure is low, and thus, additional improvement of productivity has been required.